To Distill a Mockingbird

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen

PRX

Arts

4.6 • 675 Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2018

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new theatrical version of To Kill a Mockingbird is opening on Broadway next month, adapted for the stage by Aaron Sorkin and starring Jeff Daniels as Atticus Finch. So in anticipation of this Broadway debut, we’ve put together some of our favorite segments about America’s most beloved novel.

First, we check in with the residents of Monroeville, Alabama — Lee’s hometown and the real-life "Maycomb" — to see how public opinion about the book has changed since its initial chilly reception in 1960. Psychologist Mufid James Hannush weighs in on Atticus Finch’s parenting methods. And indie rocker Wes Miles of Ra Ra Riot explains how the band found inspiration in the novel. Lastly, Kurt talks to book critic David Ulin about the controversy surrounding the publication of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman in 2015.

This podcast was produced by Studio 360’s Zoe Saunders, along with Anna Boiko-Weyrauch, Jenny Lawton, Becky Sullivan, and Lynn Levy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From PRX.
0:07.0	This is Studio 360.
0:08.8	I'm Kurti Anderson.
0:12.2	To Kill a Mockingbird is opening on Broadway next month.
0:15.7	It's a new adaptation by Aaron Sorkin, the writer of many things, including as a playwright, a few good men.
0:23.6	He's the creator of West Wing and Newsroom.
0:27.4	And Jeff Daniels is starring in this play as Atticus Finch.
0:31.9	So we're revisiting some stories we've done about the Killer Mockingbird.
0:36.4	Later, we'll hear about how the world reacted and did they react to the publication three years
0:41.2	ago of Harper Lee's other Atticus Finch vehicle, Gossetta Watchman, and how that book made
0:48.8	generations of readers reconsider how heroic he really was.
0:54.0	But first,
0:54.6	To Kill a Mockingbird became a huge and immediate bestseller
1:01.0	when it was published in 1960.
1:02.8	It won the Pulitzer Prize,
1:04.4	and shortly thereafter became the excellent film adaptation.
1:14.6	Everybody remembers Gregory Peck in his role as Atticus Finch. Peck is Atticus Finch, the Southern lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in the 1930s.
1:22.6	Now, gentlemen, in this country, our courts are the great levelers. In our courts, all men are
1:30.3	the great levelers. And in our courts, all men are created equal. Now, I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion, the evidence that you have
1:53.0	heard, come to a decision, and restore this man to his family.
2:00.0	In the name of God.
2:04.7	Do your duty.
	...

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